Defending World Champion Alvaro Bautista won World Superbike Race One Saturday at Misano World Circuit – Marco Simoncelli, in Rimini, San Marino.
Riding his Aruba.it Racing Ducati Panigale V4 R, the Spaniard won the 20-lap race by 5.221 seconds. It was his ninth race victory of the season, extending his lead in the Championship point standings.
Bautista’s teammate Michael Rinaldi was the runner-up, and Toprak Razgatlioglu finished third on his Pata Yamaha Prometeon YZF-R1.
American Garrett Gerloff got 13th on his Bonovo Action BMW M 1000 RR, just one second behind Xavi Vierge in 10th.
More, from a press release issued by Dorna:
“Giallo Ducati” makes a triumphant return to WorldSBK in Misano
The Championship leader Alvaro Bautista claimed his 12th win of the season with Ducati. He took his 70th WorldSBK podium boosting his lead to a 78-point advantage over Razgatlioglu.
P1 | Alvaro Bautista | Aruba.it Racing – Ducati
“Today, I’m happy because it has been a good day for Ducati. I had really good feedback again with the bike, even in those conditions. In Race 1, it was really warm, and the feeling with the bike was amazing. Now I can be very consistent and very fast from the first lap, so I’m happy. Maybe it seems easy from the outside, but believe me, I had to push very hard to maintain this race pace. I was in the 1’33s high, 1’34s low for almost the entire race, and it was not easy. However, I was enjoying every corner, and I was able to stay focused and concentrated throughout the race.”
Local hero Michael Ruben Rinaldi finished second in Race 1 for his 18th podium, for the fourth time in 2023.
P2 | Michael Ruben Rinaldi | Aruba.it Racing – Ducati
“I’m very happy for myself and for the team because it was a 1-2 and that’s always great! I’m really happy about my kind of performance, I didn’t expect to have this kind of race pace, but I was able to lap quickly. I couldn’t explain how Alvaro was doing his pace, he was riding absolutely unbelievably, so he deserves the win. I’m happy about what we’ve done; compared to last year and in 2021 when I won, I’m seven or eight tenths faster per lap so I’m really happy about this. For sure, I’ll try and win sooner or later. I’m really happy about this result.”
Toprak Razgatlioglu completed Race 1 podium finishing 8.971s behind Bautista. He remains second in the Championship standing.
Fourth place went to Italian Axel Bassani who stands in fifth in the Championship standings.
WorldSBK Race 1 Report
The MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship racing action got underway with a shortened 20-lap Race 1 at the Misano World Circuit “Marco Simoncelli” during the Pirelli Emilia-Romagna Round as Alvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) led teammate Michael Ruben Rinaldi as the pair sported a special yellow livery in Race 1. Bautista had a five-second margin over his teammate has he made it 12 wins from 13 races in 2023 while Rinaldi added to his Misano podium count.
As the lights went out for the 20-lap race, Toprak Razgatlioglu (Pata Yamaha Prometeon WorldSBK) and Rinaldi looked to have got a better start compared to Bautista but the reigning Champion was able to hold on from the pair to keep the lead from pole position. The trio fought it out over the early laps of the race with Razgatlioglu aiming to pass Rinaldi around the outside into Turn 4 with the Italian defending to keep second place.
As the race settled down, Bautista and Rinaldi were both able to gap Razgatlioglu in first and second place respectively to claim a home victory for Ducati on a special liveried Panigale V4 R, with the bike running yellow colours rather than red to pay homage to Ducati’s history.
While the two Ducati riders checked out in front, Razgatlioglu had to withstand some early pressure from Danilo Petrucci (Barni Spark Racing Team) and Axel Bassani (Motocorsa Racing) but the 2021 Champion was able to resist that pressure before pulling out a gap over his rivals. As the race hit the halfway stage, Petrucci dropped Bassani behind him and started gaining on Razgatlioglu in the podium fight. By Lap 12, Ragatlioglu started pulling away from the Italian rookie to claim third place. Razgatlioglu’s third place means he closes in on a century of WorldSBK podium while it was Yamaha’s 349th race on the podium.
WorldSBK action resumes on Sunday from 09:00 (Local Time) with the Warm-Up, followed by Tissot Superpole Race at 11:00 and Race 2 at 14:00.
Unveiled before the start of Race 1 for Aruba.it Racing – Ducati riders Alvaro Bautista and Michael Ruben Rinaldi, the yellow livery pays tribute to some historic bikes from Ducati, including the 750 Sport and 750 SS Desmo in the 1970s, before the yellow livery became more popular in the 1990s. Ducati models including the 916, 996, 749, 999 and 1199 have all been run in the yellow livery. Famously, Pierfrancesco Chilli raced the Ducati 998 RS in yellow and won in 2004 at Misano running a yellow livery while Paolo Casoli led a race using a yellow Ducati at 1996 in Hockenheim, Steve Martin ran it in 2004 and Lorenzo Lanzi claimed a race victory at Valencia in 2008 on a yellow liveried Ducati.
